Adventures in Babysitting
by sniperrifle001
Summary: Dan, Blair, and Ana watch a movie.
1. Chapter 1

There was a stillness, and in that stillness was a humming. That annoying humming of an old elevator recently refitted with new pulleys. How he knew that? Well he didn't, he was just speculating. In that last month he had been here more than he had for the first four years of knowing this woman. Repugnant, condescending, not to mention just plain old mean, and all of that was still true he figured but yet there he was; standing in her elevator.

The door opened smoothly and he stepped out and looked to the left. The place was oddly dim. He poked his head around and quietly made his way into the house. Other than the main foyer light, none were on. But there was a candle though. And as he squinted his eyes and focused on the dimly lit figure lying on the couch.

There she was silent and peaceful as he had ever seen her. He had the feeling that she and peace were not well acquainted. And he didn't have the heart to disturb that. But as he turned away he could feel movement behind him.

"Dan?" A familiar yet new voice came from behind him.

He spun around on his heel.

"Hey, I know you skipped out on the party tonight but I was wondering if you were still up for a movie?" Dan asked.

And as if the statement was completely idiotic Blair silently signaled Dan's attention to her lap. And there laid a baby girl, just a little under one year old. Her name was Ana and Blair adored her.

"I know and that's why…" Dan said confidently as he stressed the end up of his sentence and reached into his bank and pulled out three DVDs. "I brought Wall-E, Cars, or The Lion King."

There was a silence.

"Fine. You can stay." Blair finally said as she held out her hand for the DVDs.

Dan walked over and handed her the DVDs. Blair started ready through the descriptions on the back. Dan picked Ana off the couch and cradled her in his arms. Ana's head naturally fell onto his shoulders and without a single audible noise started to fall asleep.

"Wow…." Blair said as he watched Dan with Ana. "You're really good at that."

"Well… four months of practice." Dan said with a half-smile.

Blair got up as she continued to read through the description.

"Seriously? You've never seen The Lion King?" Dan asked as he walked with a gentle sway for Ana.

"Oh course I have, and the musical as well. It's these other two that I'm not familiar with." Blair said as they started to ascend the stairs.

"Well, Wall-E is actually pretty good but Cars is considered one of Pixar's worst movies." Dan said.

"Then why did you bring it?" Blair asked as if he was stupid.

"For whatever reason, children under 8 seem to love it." Dan answered.

"Oh boy, we're in for a long night aren't we?" Blair asked.

"Not that long." Dan replied swiftly.

The screen turned dark and so did the room. The credits began to roll on the screen as Blair, Dan, and Ana remained motionless. Blair sat up against the headboard as she cradled the sleeping Ana at her side. Ana laid peacefully in Blair's arms as one of her hands gripped Dan's hair. Dan had been drifting in and out of consciousness for the latter half of the movie, partly because he had already seen it before and partly because he was lying flat on the bed.

But now the movie was over and it was time to put Ana to bed.

"Alright, I think I'm gonna put Ana to bed now." Blair said as she tried to pick her up.

"Ouch!" Dan let out in a low growling tone as if to compensate for volume.

Blair looked down and realized that Ana's hand had still been gripping his hair.

"Awww… don't touch that! It's dirty." Blair whispered to the sleeping Ana as she untangled her small fingers from Dan's hair.

As soon as Blair had left the room Dan collapsed back onto her bed. He stared at the ceiling of a building that was part of New York's rich history. He wondered to himself how he got here. How he ended up in a bed, babysitting a girl with the person that hated him most in high school. Dan was never one to believe in fate but what else could explain how he ended up here?

The room was perfectly cooled, the air was crisp. And although he did not approve of Blair's taste in décor, or her oversized closet, or the fact that just on the other side of the bathroom door was the girl who was too free for him to be with, he found a meditative peace in being in this strange unexpected place.

She returned with the gentle clicking of glasses. She held them perfectly leveled on a tray. She placed it down gently on her bed. There sat two tall glasses with one crystal pitcher and a bucket of ice. As she sat down on the bed she picked up the prongs and started to load up each glass with ice cubes.

"This is all I had prepared tonight." Blair said focusing on the task in front of her. "Do you want coffee? It's not too late, we can still go out for drinks."

Dan sat there, silent with a handsome smile on his face, an expression that went unnoticed by Blair. It was fine, Dan didn't want to seem too obvious anyways. But as Blair talked on idly, Dan counted each and every word and nothing her voice spewed the venomous tone of her past self. She was a little more docile at night. But Dan had always known that who people were in the dead of night are who they truly were. This was Blair. And he was not disappointed.

"No, it's fine." Dan said. "Water sounds great."

She handed him the glass and as he reached to grab it his hand came in contact with hers. She was warm and soft, qualities that would no doubt come to mind if anyone had just looked at her but Dan had overlooked that for so long. She was beautiful. Simply beautiful. How did it take him four years to realize that?

"So… babysitting." Dan said. "And what's worse, you seem to be good at it."

"Did you always think of me as a monster?" Blair asked.

"Ask me that again tomorrow and we'll see how I respond." Dan retorted.

"I know I'm a bit erratic." Blair admitted. "Sometimes I wonder…"

"Wonder what?" Dan asked.

"I try not to think about it…" Blair said as her voice softened into a feint whisper. "It's painful."

"Chuck?" Dan asked.

"I know I said I forgive him but…" Blair stumbled on her words. "But part of me always wonders… in these moments, if I really am just settling. Because I'm scared."

"It's okay to be scared." Dan said. "It's okay to feel like you deserve more."

"Is it? Am I really any better than him? After what I did to him and Eva? Him and Raina?" Blair asked.

"You don't need to be perfect to deserve love." Dan answered.

"Save me your quotes for your stories." Blair said sarcastically but with a genuine smile on her face.

"You were pretty good with Ana tonight." Dan said.

"It's easy after she falls asleep." Blair said. "What about you? She immediately fell asleep in your arms."

"Well, Ana's nowhere near as energetic as Milo." Dan replied.

"Boys." Blair said simply.

"Exactly." Dan confirmed. "So what are you going to do now? You know, now that W is over."

"Focus on school I guess." Blair answered plainly.

"What about Chuck?" Dan tried to ask casually.

There was a moment of silence. A pause, in which Blair took the time to consider all that had happened and all that had been said, the moment was brief but it was noticeable. Blair was getting tired and Dan could see it even if she wasn't willing to admit it just yet. So he waited. And he was patient with her. She seemed like she needed a patience ear right now.

"I think I am done with Chuck for now." Blair said with a sigh of relief.

"Are you okay?" Dan asked cautiously.

"Better than expected." Blair answered.

And again there was a silence between them but this time it was serene. It was peaceful.

"Wanna go see the Joseph Beuys exhibit tomorrow?" Dan asked.

"Hmmmm…" An uncertainly came over her voice. "I'll think about it."


	2. Chapter 2

The moonlight pierced the window and dispersed softly across her face. How is it that the light seems to catch her so perfectly every time? And why does she wear such a melancholic expression all the time? She sat there with Ana as the baby girl idly held herself up by leaning on the cold surface of the window. She was fascinated by it, as though she was being suspended in the sky. Blair kept an idle eye on Ana. But her mind was elsewhere.

It didn't take long for her to notice Dan standing by the table in the middle of the foyer. He smiled his awkward smile at her as her glance met his gaze. She was glad to see him. How was that even possible? She tried not to think about it all that much. All she knew was that she was happy and she had been learning to trust happiness again, it wasn't an easy thing to try to relearn. Not after all that had happened to her.

He sat himself down on the carpeted ground in front of Blair and Ana. Blair sat on the reading chair by the window as she held kept a watchful eye on Ana. Her expression didn't change. Had she even lost to motivating to simply smile?

"Still up?" Dan asked.

"I don't need you checking up on me." Blair retorted.

"Really?" Dan asked. "It's midnight and you're keeping Ana up to hang out with you?"

"She was awake anyways." Blair said in a pouty voice. She reached over and hugged and nuzzled Anna. She gave her a kiss to the forehead. "She's the only one who still loves me."

Dan smiled. She was awfully cute when she was miserable.

Dan got up and stretched. He then reached over and scooped Ana out of Blair's embrace. He did it so casually, so confidently. Blair had always wanted a prince. Perfectly gallant and chivalrous, Blair had spent so much time trying to mold Chuck into that person. She thought she had been succeeding. She truly thought she was.

But Dan, Dan didn't need molding. Dan was perfectly chivalrous all on his own. There wasn't a second thought, a motivation, an ulterior motive to him; he simply was who he was. It just so happened to be the kind of guy Blair had always wanted but felt too ashamed to admit. They say a princess deserves her prince.

She was still in the middle of trying to become a princess.

Was she ready for this? Was she ready to fall in love with a guy who up until now had been in love with her best friend? Was all of this worth it? Was Serena worth it? Was her social standing worth it? For a prince… maybe it was.

She watched from the hallway as inside the dark room Dan laid Ana down in her crib. When did this become routine? When did watching Dan and Ana become the best part of her day? She wondered as she watched from a doorway, as if staring into the future, a man putting a child to sleep. She never realized how much she wanted this.

She heard him speak in a whisper.

"Good job today." Dan whispered to Ana as she slowly started to close her eyes. "You're good with Blair. You're very patient with her. And I know that's not easy sometimes."

Blair smiled.

"But she's your big sister and she loves you so much. She'd do anything for your mother and you." Dan continued. "You're a very lucky girl Ana."

He paused. She watched as the moonlight came in through the window of Ana's nursery and illuminated his back as he arched over to kiss Ana goodnight.

"She's just scared right now." Dan whispered to the sleeping Ana. "Thank you for taking care of her."

He turned around. Blair made no attempt at hiding her espionage. All she did was smile at him. He had never seen that smile before. Blair had never made it before. It was a new kind of happiness. She wasn't quite sure what to make of it just yet.

"I've never seen this side of you before Humphrey." Blair commented in a gleeful tone.

"I know, you've mentioned." Dan replied hesitantly.

"I didn't mean it in a bad way." Blair replied simply.

They sat and they talked. As they had done before, as they had done for countless nights in the last few months. It felt natural, it felt right. How beautiful the night is when he could share it with this amazing woman. And even though their kiss had ended with their decision to remain platonic he was not disappointed. He was still glad that he could have this time with her.

She observed, as his lips moved and the words flowed. She listened, as the ever present breath of New York city life rang faintly from outside the window, to the conversation. She replied almost without thought. This moment, as the cool atmosphere of the spring permeated into the house and the warmth of their tea and the chandelier in the foyer clashed in silent battle, she felt calm. She felt happy. She thought at least. But this was not the happiness she knew with Chuck. Or maybe she just didn't know what happiness was. All this time she had thought it the heat of passion when she was playing her games with Chuck or that it was the cold of the spring night when he was wallowing in the painful memory of his father.

But maybe happiness was somewhere else; maybe it was in the comfort of a warm glow that sat in the middle of passion and crippling loneliness. Maybe it was something that her and Chuck never had; security.

She had never loved danger. But it had been so common place in her relationships that she did not know how to function without it. But now, in the safety of a warm conversation with a friend, she had no danger, she had nothing to be afraid of, nothing to lose and everything to keep.

The question is, would she keep it?

"You know what I think?" Dan said in a loud gestural voice snapping Blair out of her train of thoughts. "I think… that you have more love than you let on."

Blair didn't say anything, she waited for him to finish.

"One day, you're gonna find someone that you can give your whole being to. It's who you are. It's what makes you so special." Dan said. "Just like you did for Chuck. But unlike Chuck, he's not going to squander it. He'll never take you for granted."

"You sure about that?" Blair asked calmly.

"No." Dan answered plainly. "But I have faith. And you should too. And as I said earlier tonight, you'll find your prince."

And with that Dan stood up walked over and kissed Blair on the forehead and left. She sat there holding onto the moment as if it were truly possible. What was she holding onto? What a difference a night makes. In the morning she had thought that she wanted to be with Chuck. To fall in love again. But what a difference a night makes. Now sitting by herself with Dan just moments gone, she felt the stinging of loneliness again.

She noticed on the ground a plain black notebook. Dan must've dropped it on his way out. She picked it up off the ground and sat back into her chair. In the dark she found the switch to the lamp beside her. The light poured over the pages of the notebook. Blair flipped through it only to notice it was mostly blank. She felt the texture of the notebook in her hand. It was stick and unused, this was a new notebook.

She finally just opened to the first page. There were only two lines.

_He has to truly love love.  
>Before he can truly love you.<em>

He wrote it for her. He meant to drop it. He meant to tell her what she wasn't willing to hear him say. Chuck has to want to love before he would ever truly love her. She had always known this; it was just his way of telling her the truth she didn't want to admit.

There was moment from the elevator. A man came in with a golden box. He was dressed in a black tux and tie. He said nothing put the box down on the table and smiled at her as she walked away.

Blair jumped up and ran over to the box. She looked over at the elevator but the man had already gone. She took the lid off the box and found her old Vivier with a note on top. It simply read:

_Louis._

There was a pause. She took the moment to reflect. A prince… that's exactly what she wanted. Wasn't it?


End file.
